Asthmatic
by dexteritys
Summary: "A small part of me wonders if I'm still drowning but the smoothness of sheets tangled in my legs tells me otherwise, yet I can't seem to shake the horrifying fact there's rocks in my chest and a bullet hole in my throat and something thick clogging up the passageway to my lungs and oh god I can't breathe I can't breathe I can't breathe" Naruto POV, a world where Sasuke never left


**I don't own Naruto. **

**Helpful criticism is appreciated and welcomed but no hateful reviews. If you have any suggestions or lovely words to say, you can PM me or review any time. Thank you and enjoy!**

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_I'm looking over the edge of a small cliff. A leaf floats down into the water from the tree behind me and ripples my reflection. My face looks distorted in the water and I frown slightly. Laying back against the tree, I sigh in the fog-like atmosphere; I can tell this is a dream. _

"_Dobe." I turn around and smile at my boyfriend who randomly appeared a yard behind me. His eyes are soft but quickly turn sinister as a sneer replaces the light smile on his lips._

"_Don't fall in."_

_I trip backwards into the water. The small cliff is gone and there is no Sasuke. The tree has been replaced with a large body of water and I can distantly recognize the ocean because salt soon fills my mouth. I am panicking as my arms flail widely in the water and the burning sensation of salt engulfs my throat into my lungs. I cough and sputter and somewhere in the back of my mind the small voice of reason beckons, "Just swim, idiot"._

"_Tell that to my limbs!" I want to shout back but my body has betrayed me as larger waves fold over my head like a kidnapping sack. _

_I feel the tug of water pull me downwards and I want to scream for help but I know it'll just force more water into my already deprived lungs. My arms are sore and tired but panic has set in as I hear an unmistakable mantra sounding suspiciously like the grouchy old man who lives in the complex next to me and if I wasn't so scared I would have laughed at the fact._

_Breathe_

_Breathe_

_Breathe_

_I want to scream back that I can't and I'm drowning and I can't even think straight because water is burning my chest and my heart is near done screaming and my hands claw to the surface but my legs are weighed by cinderblocks and dear God why can't I just-_

I gasp ruggedly as I sit straight up as if a rod was jammed into my spine. My whole body is soaked as my nightshirt clings to my back like a second skin. I vaguely realize my hands going to my heart, trying to pry open my chest because oh Lord I can't seem to breathe.

A small part of me wonders if I'm still drowning but the smoothness of the sheets tangled in my legs tells me otherwise yet I can't seem to shake the fact there's rocks in my chest and a bullet hole in my throat and something thick clogging up the passageway to my lungs and I can't breathe I can't breathe I can't breathe.

No sooner did my raspy breaths interrupt the silence of the air did I feel smooth but panicked hands on my neck, clutching my shoulders, running through my hair. A rumble that sounds like someone speaking increases in volume but my ears are still blocked with sounds of the waves and I know I should listen but I'm starting to get dizzier as seconds click by.

Hands. Hands are on my face, holding my cheeks, and if my eyes weren't closed so tightly and my mind wasn't so occupied on taking in oxygen that doesn't seem to be there, I might have felt at ease.

Something hard and plastic is placed in front of my gasping lips, and without second thought, it is shoved into my mouth with urgency.

More breaths of air are desperately taken and I realize the rocks on my chest are slowly being lifted one by one. There is a ringing in my ears and a headache forming in my mind but the weight has been lifted from my torso and slowly my panic subsides as well. I vaguely feel my back against soft comforters. Wasn't I just sitting up a few seconds ago? I push the thought back as I feel myself begin to tremble against the bed in aftershock.

I am too tired to lift my eyelids, having them been kept shut for the entire ordeal, but I feel two hands grasping my face in insistence.

"Naruto, can you hear me?" A clouded voice breaks through my foggy mind.

A response is hanging from my lips but the weight is pulling me under. _This is important, open your eyes. _That little voice of reason is really starting to piss me off.

"Naruto, don't fall asleep. Tell me you're alright." The voice is persistent, not as foggy, almost familiar…

I struggle through the heaviness holding down my eyelids and blearily look up. A muddled shape of Sasuke comes into my view. His sharingan is activated, most likely from panic and red eyes stare into my unfocused ones as his fingers tighten around my face.

"Oi, wake up." I see his lips move to form these words but the pain in my chest prevents me from responding just yet.

The tense form above me seems to uncoil slightly as I see him reach over to grab the hard plastic bottle that was urgently shoved in my mouth earlier.

"Here, breathe into this," his tone is gentle as long pale fingers lift my chin up towards the inhaler.

I take a long breath inwards and sigh in relief. My eyes flicker up to worried red ones and guilt overwhelms me.

"Sorry," I croak out.

Sasuke lowers his head and I think I see a flash of a small smile before he runs his hands warily through his bedhead and looks down at me.

"Dobe, don't be sorry for an asthma attack." Once his eyes flickers over my form to reassure him that I was alive and breathing, the sharingan disperses, leaving me with normal coal black eyes, which is still slightly clouded with unease.

Realizing I want to sit up, and struggling to do so, strong arms grasp my shoulders and take my weight before I am sitting upright in front of Sasuke. I rub my aching chest and take a sip of water perched on top the nightstand.

I cough a few times to clear my throat before I rasp out in a quiet whisper, "But… I woke you up… and I scared you…"

"True and true," Sasuke looks over my soaked clothes before he rises from the bed to retrieve a dry shirt, "But when you first sat up and started choking, I assumed an assassin snuck through the window you forgot to lock and slit your throat."

He gives me a pointed look as I sheepishly rub the back of my head. Since we decided to stay over at my apartment for the night, Sasuke tended to get a tad paranoid when it came to the protection of the flat and our own wellbeing. I mean granted the apartment was a little run down and the neighborhood a little bit filled with rapists and thugs who tended to come into people's houses and kill them in their sleep, but I mean come on, it was no big deal.

He sits down on the bed and helps me lift my damp shirt above my head.

"Once I realized you were having an attack, I tried to calm you down by holding you and telling you to look at me," his eyes flickered over my face in worry, "But you couldn't hear me."

I lift my arms as Sasuke pulls the dry shirt above my head, slightly annoyed he was treating me like a handicapped child and slightly relieved because I knew I was too weak to do it myself.

The tired dark-haired man sighs as he gently rubs his hands down the side of my torso.

"When your breathing got worse, I reached into the night stand's first aid kit to get the emergency inhaler. Even then you didn't even register that I was here. You slightly passed out from the lack of oxygen and fell back onto the bed," Sasuke's words seem concerned and when he notices my guilty expression avoiding his eyes, he lifts his hand to place under my chin so my eyes would meet his.

"What was it about?"

I rub my chest absently; Sasuke takes notice.

"I was drowning."

I try to say the words like it's no big deal. But my avoidance of eye contact says otherwise. I turn slightly towards the window. It's only 2:40am and I loosely wonder if anyone in the village was awake.

Sasuke smirks slightly at my turned back as he states, "You know you can walk on water, right?"

I swirl around and attempt to smack the top of his head in annoyance but he takes advantage of my weakened state and ducks out of the line of fire. Still, a sly grin stretches along my face now that the tension has been broken by his smart-assery.

"Shut up, teme," I mumble in fake irritation as I cross my arms and turn away.

A ghost of a smile graces his lips as he shifts to sit next to me on his side of the bed. I'm still pouting when Sasuke grabs my arm and uses it to pull me down next to him so my head is resting on his chest.

"Go to sleep, dobe," he whispers in my ear. I'm tempted to give a snarky reply but my eyelids are growing heavier and heavier. For a second I tense up, afraid I'll experience the same lung-crushing dream.

Sasuke, noticing my tense form, squeezes me tighter and mutters with a smile on his tired lips, "Seriously, just stand up next time."

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**Thank you so much for reading! Reviews are greatly appreciated**


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